CURVE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Curve

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/kərv/ Listen

noun

Curve n.

A bending without angles; that which is bent; a flexure; as, a curve in a railway or canal.

(Geom.) A line described according to some low, and having no finite portion of it a straight line.

Axis of a curve. See under Axis.

Curve of quickest descent. See Brachystochrone.

Curve tracing (Math.), the process of determining the shape, location, singular points, and other peculiarities of a curve from its equation.

Plane curve (Geom.), a curve such that when a plane passes through three points of the curve, it passes through all the other points of the curve. Any other curve is called a curve of double curvature, or a twisted curve.

verb

Curve v. t. (past & past part. curved; pres. part. curving) To bend; to crook; as, to curve a line; to curve a pipe; to cause to swerve from a straight course; as, to curve a ball in pitching it.

Curve v. i. To bend or turn gradually from a given direction; as, the road curves to the right.

adjective

Curve adj. Bent without angles; crooked; curved; as, a curve line; a curve surface.

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Etymology of 'Curve'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Curve" Quotes from Famous Books

... dealer—in the studio. She sat with a book unopened in her hand, gazing intently into the fire, which cast responsive flickers over her face, giving a shadowed emphasis to the faint line which had begun to display itself, not unattractively, between her eyebrows and the irregular curve of her brown hair. She was growing very weary of it all, the distraction which she had sought, the forgetfulness of self which she had hoped to achieve, by living perpetually in a crowd. Indeed, to such a point had she carried her endeavours, that Mrs. ...

— A Comedy of Masks - A Novel • Ernest Dowson and Arthur Moore

... desired, medium-sized ones that are uniform in size and color should be selected. With regard to shape, they should have a comparatively long oval shell, one end of which is blunt and the other, a sharp curve. ...

— Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 2 - Volume 2: Milk, Butter and Cheese; Eggs; Vegetables • Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences

... shelter shed he bethought himself and turned a farewell tender smile on the white-haired woman who stood watching him through a mist of tears. Then his eyes went back for one last glimpse of the girl; and so he flashed out of sight around the curve. ...

— The Search • Grace Livingston Hill

... curve inland, and, after winding in and out to make the best of the contour of the hills, the train finally steams very heavily and slowly into Ravenscar Station, right over the Peak and 630 feet above the sea. On the way you get glimpses of the moors inland, and grand views over the curving bay. ...

— Yorkshire Painted And Described • Gordon Home

... this point (that the generalissimo must not allow his sense of proportion to be distorted by local successes or reverses) is clearly brought out in The Point of View, a story in "The Green Curve" by ...

— Lectures on Land Warfare; A tactical Manual for the Use of Infantry Officers • Anonymous

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